Moff DAN Chapter 2

◄ DAN 2 ► ║ ═ ©

2 Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that disturbed his mind, till sleep forsook him. 2 So he had the magicians and the enchanters and the sorcerers and the diviners summoned, to tell the king what he had dreamed. In they came and stood before the king. 3 “I have had a dream,” said the king to them, “and my mind is disturbed with desire to know the dream.” 4 Then the diviners said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live for ever! Tell your servants the dream, 5 and we will interpret it.” 5 But the king replied to the diviners, “What I say, I mean: if you do not tell me the dream and what it means, you shall be torn limb from limb and your houses shall be made a dunghill. 6 But if you tell me what the dream was and what it means, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and high honour. So tell me what the dream was and what it means.” 7 Again they said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” 8 “I see quite plainly that you want to gain time,” said the king, “because you see I mean what I say-- 9 that if you cannot tell me the dream, there is one doom for you. And you have connived to talk falsely and foully to me, till things take a turn. Tell me the dream, and then I shall know you can xo tell me what it means.” 10 The diviners answered the king, “There is not a man on earth who could tell what the king demands; no monarch, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or diviner. 11 The king is asking a hard thing, which none can tell him except the gods who dwell not with mortal men.”

12 This made the king angry and most furious; he gave orders to have all the sages of Babylon slaughtered. 13 The edict was issued, and the sages were to be killed. But when the patrol came for Daniel and his companions, to kill them, 14 Daniel spoke with sense and tact to Arioch the captain of the king’s executioners, who had come to kill the sages of Babylon. 15 He said to Arioch the king’s captain, “Why is the king’s edict so ruthless?” Arioch told Daniel; 16 and Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, till he could tell what the dream meant. 17 Then Daniel went home and told his companions Hananiah, Mishael, and Azarlah; 18 they were to ask the God of heaven to be merciful in the matter of this mystery, that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the other sages of Babylon. 19 In a vision by night the mystery was revealed to Daniel. And Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 20 Daniel said:

“Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever,

for his are wisdom and might:

he changes epochs and eras,

he removes kings and he sets up kings:

to the wise he gives wisdom, and intelligence to the intelligent,

he reveals what is deep and mysterious,

he knows what is in the darkness,

and with him dwells the light.

God of my fathers, thee I thank and praise,

who hast given me wisdom and might,

who hast told me what we asked from thee:

for thou hast told us the king’s trouble.”

24 So Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had ordered to slaughter the sages of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not slaughter the sages of Babylon; take me into the presence of the king, and I will tell the king what the dream means.” 25 Arioch hurried with Daniel into the presence of the king and said to him, “I have found a man belonging to the exiles from Judah, who can tell the king what the dream means.”

26 And the king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Can you tell me the dream I saw and tell me what it means?” 27 Daniel answered the king, “No sages, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers, can tell the king the mystery which the king has asked; 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he discloses to king Nebuchadnezzar what is to happen in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your brain in bed are these: 29 As you lay in bed, O king, you were thinking of the future, and he who reveals mysteries has disclosed to you what is to happen. 30 For myself, I have not had this mystery revealed to me on account of any wisdom that I possess, more than the rest of men, but simply in order that the meaning of the dream may be told to the king, and that you may understand what your thoughts meant. 31 You looked, O king, and there stood a mighty image! This image, huge and gleaming, stood before you, terrible to behold. 32 The head of this image was made of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly iron and partly clay. 34 You looked at it till you saw a stone being hewn out by no human hands, which struck the image on its feet, part iron and part clay, breaking them to bits; 35 and then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, were all broken to bits, and whirled away by the wind, like chaff blown from threshing-floors in summer, till they could not be found. The stone that struck the image became a great mountain, filling all the earth. 36 Such was the dream. Now we will tell the king what it means. 37 You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given all dominion, power, strength, and glory; 38 and, wherever the sons of men dwell, he has put the wild animals and the birds of the air into your power, and made you rule over them all: you are the golden head. 39 After you another kingdom shall arise, less powerful; then a third kingdom of bronze, which shall bear sway over all the earth. 40 The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; for, as iron breaks everything to bits and beats it down, so shall it break and crush, like the iron that crushes all else. 41 It shall be a divided kingdom--for you saw the feet and toes were partly potter’s clay and partly iron. But the firmness of iron shall be in it--for you saw there was iron mixed with the muddy clay. 42 Also, as the toes on the feet were partly iron, partly clay, so part of the kingdom shall be strong, part brittle. 43 You saw the iron mixed with muddy clay? That means they shall intermarry in that kingdom, but they shall not hold together, any more than iron blends with clay; 44 and in the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom never to be swept away, with a sovereignty that shall never pass to others; it shall break all these kingdoms to bits and make an end of them, but it shall stand for ever, 45 as you saw how the stone was hewn from the mountain by no human hands and how it broke to bits the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. Great God has told the king what is to happen in the future: the dream is certain, and its meaning sure.”

46 Then king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and bowed down to Daniel and ordered sacrifice and incense to be offered to him. 47 “Truly,” said the king to Daniel, “your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.” 48 The king gave Daniel high promotion, and many handsome presents; he made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and prefect over all the sages of Babylon. 49 At the request of Daniel, the king also put Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego in charge of the business of the province of Babylon; Daniel himself remained at court, in the king’s Gate.

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